Exciting first few weeks in my new job as Development Executive of the Indie Training Fund; a whirlwind of meetings with Fund member indies, trainers and production companies; a crash course in the problems and challenges involved in training in the independent television and digital media sectors.
Delighted to be working alongside Ian, Laura and Andrea, and grateful for the support of Nick Catliff, the ITF chairman and managing director of Lion Television. I’m looking forward to contributing to the development of ITF projects in 2012 and beyond.
One of our main aims is to increase awareness and membership of the Indie Training Fund. If recent newspaper reports are to be believed, then almost fifty per cent of the independent television sector still fails to offer adequate training opportunities for staff and, particularly, freelancers. We hope to help change this situation.
Another positive step would be to increase ITF’s activities outside London. Although there have been recent courses in Manchester (and there are scheduled events in Newcastle and Belfast in the New Year) we’re hoping to build closer relationships with independent TV companies and other training organizations in the regions.
With this in mind I attended the Manchester Media Festival and BVE North Exhibition in mid November. Held in the revamped, revitalized old GMex station building, it was a nostalgic return for me. In my previous life as a music journalist and TV producer, I’d seen many great gigs in the venue including The Smiths, The Fall, James, Happy Mondays, and even INXS. Rain or shine (but mostly rain) I still love Manchester. The old mills are alive with the sound of music, no one’s allowed to get too big for their boots and, literally, there’s poetry on the streets of the Northern Quarter.
When I left Manchester in the early 2000s, the TV industry was in decline and the town was a building site. Now, although its people and businesses are being battered and bruised by recession, the football clubs thrive and Media City is being promoted as the next theatre of dreams. True, it’s no longer the Salford of Morrissey’s childhood – the hard working class Salford of Lowry and Riley; the bitter-sweet Salford of A Taste Of Honey (R.I.P. Shelagh D) – but it’s becoming more modern and original; vibrant and creative in a very different way.
It was good to hear Jon Corner, the Director of MediaCityUK, talk about the mutual relationship between the university and the industry. He expressed the hope that the new hi-tech infrastructure and state-of-the-art broadcast-quality facilities (developed by Mediasmiths) would be hugely beneficial to graduates and post-graduates studying to work in TV and digital media companies in the North.
Equally impressive, while looking at the UK Media landscape from a different angle, were Lou Cordwell and Adam Todd of Magnetic North. Primarily a digital design company, they presented an enlightening session titled “the evolution of the digital indie: from microsites to multiplatform”. Having recently completed work on their acclaimed interactive BBC Desert Islands Discs website, MN is living proof of the diverse talents rising in the North.
Some of the key Manchester Media Festival discussions about the Multi-Platform future stressed the importance of convergence and co-operation, with emphasis on embracing technological advances and developing a new mindset for working with traditional TV production methods.
My old NME mate Stuart Cosgrove, Director of Creative Diversity at Channel Four, chaired forward-thinking sessions on the use of social gaming to engage with new target audiences. These featured brain-refreshing presentations from Simon Meek of Scottish and Northern Irish indie Tern TV, on interactive story-telling in their digital adaptation of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps, and Steve Ackerman of Somethin’ Else on gaming evolution and brand integration. Ackerman spoke about the complex digital multiplatform deals for Somethin’ Else’s recent collaboration with publishers Random House on Richard Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality to create a children’s science book, a TV series, an interactive game and an iPad App. They’re also working on a Channel Four interactive-game-meets-Sims-style-soap-opera for 2012 titled The Super Mes.
It was also great to hook up again with two former Granada contacts now working in Manchester’s university and industry. My good friend Beth Hewitt is the Director of Graduate and Industry Development in Salford University’s School of Media, Music and Performance. She runs an excellent MA course in Documentary Film and Television Production, but I guess I would say that because I’ve lectured there!
Meanwhile Cat Lewis is the MD and Executive Producer of the award-winning indie Nine Lives Media. They’ve just picked up an RTS Award for Best Factual Series for BBC Three’s Small Teen Bigger World, and other recent success stories include Extraordinary People for Five and Nightmare In Suburbia for the Crime & Investigation Network. Nine Lives recently won commissions from CBBC and BBC Learning. I also worked with Cat’s husband, ex-World In Action chief Mike Lewis, at Granada back in the 1990s and he’s helped build Nine Lives’ reputation in factual programming with Panoramas including Finished At Fifty.
Aside from Nine Lives’ own productions, Cat’s the driving force behind The Indie Club which has been instrumental in building a real sense of community amongst independent television companies in Manchester and beyond. The club, run by and for programme makers, has over 450 members and regularly hosts top quality guest speakers such as Paul Abbott, Carolyn Reynolds, Willy Russell, Sita Williams and Stephen Lambert.
Hopefully in 2012, by building ITF’s relationship with these strong contacts and working with regional partners such as Skillset and the BBC Academy, we can further help improve training opportunities in TV and digital media production in the North.
